During the past week the Mecca for light aircraft owners and pilots has been the EAA annual aviation event in the USA, generally known as and called "Oshkosh"

Of note during the show and news reporting was the newly formed "club" of Earth-rounders - those who had flown around the world in light aircraft - a number of them were Australians and included in the group were various international 'members' who had called into Archerfield during their circumnavigation of the Globe
 

Held annually at the Wittman Regional Airport at Oshkosh Wisconsin - the convention attracts many thousands of aviators from just about all sections of the world

Follow the highlighted links within the following news story to take you to the connection with Archerfield - use your Browser 'back' or 'return' after viewing to bring you back to this page

Piloting an airplane around the world is quite a trick no matter how you play it and yesterday's first-ever meeting of Earth-rounders held here at AirVenture 2000 showed there are lots of different ways to pull it off
 
Dick Rutan did it nonstop on a single load of fuel -- and got up to challenge his fellow flyers to a nonstop race - "I thought it would have happened by now" he said - "it's been 14 years since Voyager"
 
Jon Johanson is halfway round on his third RTW trip having flown his homebuilt RV-4 from Adelaide - over the North Pole and on to Oshkosh - landing here last Sunday after 150 hours of flying - "We're not used to cold in Australia" Johanson said "and the problems began when the temperatures fell a lot lower than everyone said they would" - He ran into a cold front about an hour south of the Pole and was frozen numb straight through before finally reaching his next stop safely

Everyone had a story to tell of the grand adventures they had circling the globe - Horst Ellenberger of Germany related a tale about ditching in the Pacific - Larry and Cathy Lee of Atlanta GA flew with their two sons -- all four of them pilots -- in a Piper Malibu in a RTW race back in 1992 - "Larry said 'You can take five pounds of baggage'" Cathy Lee recalled "and I told him "You've got to be kidding - my shoes will weigh more than that!'"
 
Gaby Kennard of Australia mortgaged her house and then went looking for sponsors to finance her 1989 trip in a Piper Saratoga flying 29,000 nautical miles more or less following the route taken by Amelia Earhart - "It was an incredible dream" she said - "But if you can dream it - you can do it"
 
Hans Gutmann of Austria invited all the Earth-rounders to a second gathering next year in Vienna - "It's not that far away" he said "only 27 hours in my airplane"